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Pumpkin Pie From Scratch

(Corinne discovers that you don’t need a can to make pumpkin pie — and yes, pumpkin, and related squashes, remain very much in season. –MB)

For two weeks, the little pumpkin sat on my kitchen table, just begging to be made into a pie. Although the pumpkin, which came from my CSA, was smaller than a basketball, the idea of figuring out how to turn the still-dirty squash into something edible was strangely intimidating.

This wasn’t a jack-o-lantern size pumpkin, but a sugar pumpkin, a smaller and sweeter variety that is specially bred for baking and begins to show up in grocery stores during the fall.

Finally, with the pumpkin continuing to stare me down I decided to overcome my fear and turn that little squash into a pie.

The first step was to cook the pumpkin. After an online search, I found a lot of options: microwave, stovetop, oven. I decided to go the oven route.

I cut the pumpkin in half, and scooped out the seeds and stringy part from the middle. The stringy part ended up in the trashcan, but my boyfriend snatched up the seeds, roasting them and adding them to his granola.

I then placed the pumpkin halves face down in a baking pan, with about one inch of water on the bottom so they wouldn’t dry out. After baking for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees, the pumpkin flesh was soft, and I easily scooped it out of the shell. Then, after pureeing the flesh, I had about two cups of surprisingly sweet, baby-food consistency pumpkin.

Once I had the puree, the rest was easy (with the exception of grating the fresh ginger) and resulted in a delicious pie that, in its whole-wheat crust, was healthy enough to eat for breakfast.

Method

Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour into crust. If there is extra filling, pour it into a baking pan for a crust-less pumpkin pie or custard.
Bake the pie for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then approximately 35 minutes at 350 degrees or until set.